Rods On Rivers / Guns on Pegs Shooting & Fishing Census

Yes some pretty deep pockets out there. Or it is still "corporate" which is a pretty polite way of saying the suckers are paying for our fun.

David.
 
It’s interesting enough stuff but it’s important to bear in mind that the focus of this survey is quite narrow, since it’s really a piece of market research into driven shooting and salmon fishing. As such, it’s perfectly fine, but it obviously appeals only to the premium end of the market. What I’d like to see is an equivalent study into the overall fieldsports landscape. The perception is that driven pheasant and partridge shooting is the dominant form of sport in this country, and this may be true, but there’s a huge range even within that. Most participants probably have a range of interests from wildfowling to stalking, through pest control, ferreting and so on. Much of this is non-commercial in nature, even if it attracts a cost, but isn’t done for profit. Obviously this not-for-much-profit area isn’t of huge interest to commercial driven shooting operators, unless they can get their mitts on it. The fact is that in this study, the average gun is spending about £5000 a year on driven shooting, and the average price of their shotguns is about the same. That obviously hides huge disparities: throw a £100,000 Purdey into the mix and “average” becomes meaningless. Equipment costs apart, as they’re one-off expenses, I spend something like £200 a year on wildfowling and roughshooting, and maybe twice that on stalking (excluding travel and accommodation). I’m not even on the radar for this survey as I just don’t have the cash.

It would be interesting to find out what the fieldsports landscape actually looks like from this perspective: it might knock on the head the idea that it’s the preserve of fat plutocrats in Range Rovers. Not that they’re not welcome, but lots of people don’t fit that image, because frankly, there aren’t enough of them to make up the numbers!

May be an idea for an SD survey? I don’t know if BASC has done anything like this.
 
I dunno PM, better data point than any other we have. And apparently a survey of 4,000 or so.

(Just as an example, £100,000 Purdey, divided by 4000 is only a £25 pound make up of that Purdey) Be interesting to see the variances or some distributions...
 
I dunno PM, better data point than any other we have. And apparently a survey of 4,000 or so.

I don't know whether you took the survey, but the questions didn't really allow participants to elaborate on areas outside of commercial driven shooting. They were about cost and species, but nothing much about methods. Essentially, there wasn't anywhere to say that you did some wildfowling for £200 a year, or that someone invited you stalking for free. It wasn't really about the range of activities, it was about what you're prepared to pay for and how much. And the answer was that commercial driven shooting is completely unaffordable for most people, so is probably not representative of shooters as a whole. I suspect that a lot of people participate in what they can locally (which in a weird way is what I do), and might treat themselves to a driven shoot with friends once in a while. Otherwise of course there are a lot of DIY shoots which as I said don't really fall within the remit of shooting businesses.
 
I don't know whether you took the survey, but the questions didn't really allow participants to elaborate on areas outside of commercial driven shooting. They were about cost and species, but nothing much about methods. Essentially, there wasn't anywhere to say that you did some wildfowling for £200 a year, or that someone invited you stalking for free. It wasn't really about the range of activities, it was about what you're prepared to pay for and how much. And the answer was that commercial driven shooting is completely unaffordable for most people, so is probably not representative of shooters as a whole. I suspect that a lot of people participate in what they can locally (which in a weird way is what I do), and might treat themselves to a driven shoot with friends once in a while. Otherwise of course there are a lot of DIY shoots which as I said don't really fall within the remit of shooting businesses.

Yes I took the survey and in some ways in some ways what you say is true. But it shows what shooting costs and what you "free" shooting is actually worth. Remember, it is a survey on shooting costs, not "what do you shoot and what do you pay"
 
I did the survey, and I do have driven shooting! Doesn't make me a plutocrat though as it is a walk on stand one shoot, with lots of work by the members. I would guess that I am in a similar position to an awful lot of other game shooters out there. Also belong to a wildfowling club. Not very posh at all.

David.
 
I think you have to be crackers not to carry decent insurance from one of the providers. (Please don't start going off-piste with this comment)

David.
 
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